As an accomplished Media Employment Lawyer, clients come to me all the time with questions about their supervisor, and what can they do if they are engaging in inappropriate conduct. If the supervisor is an individual that’s engaging in the inappropriate conduct with regard to either bullying or sexual harassment or conduct, then you have to resort to your employee manual. The usual process is you tell the employee to report to your supervisor. In this particular situation, this employee is not going to be very crazy about talking to that supervisor and making a complaint to them. If she has done so and it has not resulted in any change of behavior or basically a denial of the behavior, then you have to offer to the employee an alternative source. That should be set forth in your employee manual or employee handbook that outlines a process to deal with harassment particularly by a supervisor because you can’t have that individual judging the complaint or making a determination on the complaint if he is the alleged perpetrator.
You have to establish basically an independent situation where somebody in HR or somebody else like a vice president or an individual who is familiar with the employee manual and familiar with processes establishes the procedure to do the investigation, make the investigation full and complete and establish the disciplinary process from that. You can discipline the supervisor or end up terminating the supervisor. You can end up suspending the supervisor or demoting the supervisor because of that conduct. The key here is you must provide an alternative manner for that employee and to let that employee know they have another way to go other than talking to the supervisor.
If you have any questions regarding what happens if the supervisor of company engaging in inappropriate conduct, please contact our Media employment attorney for a case evaluation.
This educational blog was brought to you by experienced Employment Attorney Walter J. Timby. Our law firm proudly represents clients throughout Media, as well as Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.